Assessment of myocardial performance, function and contractility is critically important for the evaluation of many patients with known or suspected heart disease. There has been growing interest in the dynamic assessment of cardiac contraction relying on the instantaneous relationships between pressure and dimensions in both the left and right ventricles.
Pressure-volume or pressure-dimension loops provide visual and parametric information regarding the performance of the right and left ventricle as a pump and help identify the pathophysiology of cardiac dysfunction and the extent of cardiac impairment. Moreover, these loops allow for determination and quantification of the success of many therapeutic interventions. Thus, accurate and efficient analysis of pressure and dimension relationships in the heart of patients and in clinical research using small animal subjects is critically important for assessing disease, response to therapeutics, and for developing new therapeutics and strategies for treating human and animal patients.
Current methods in the art for assessing pressure-volume or pressure-dimension relationships, including traditional echocardiography and conductance methods, can be overly complicated, time consuming and unreliable. Needed in the art are systems and methods for capture and display of blood pressure and ultrasound data.